Al Gore’s ‘sustainable capitalism’ is DOA

Commentary: Don’t be misled by the buzzwords in ‘The Future’

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Warning, Al Gore’s new book, “The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change,” is not what it appears at first. It’s not a scientific forecast for a new “sustainable capitalism” by a Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist dedicated to “saving the world.”

By focusing first on the lofty ideals of “Six Drivers of Global Change,” you’d hope to see the old Al Gore, America’s environmental dragon slayer, a kindred spirit with folks like the legendary Rachel Carson and Bill McKibben.

Not true. Forget for the moment “Six Drivers,” the six macroeconomic trends. Yes, they define the problem. But nothing’s new. Focus instead on his “sustainable capitalism”: a package of five proposed new governmental regulations. Look closely. Don’t be misled by the buzzwords. There’s nothing “sustainable.”

Ask yourself: Won’t his five regulations have the unintended consequences of putting a damper on free markets, slowing economic growth, handicapping job creators, and making America more socialistic than capitalistic?

Yes, as you’ll see below, Gore’s five proposed “sustainable capitalism” actions are, in effect, secret poison pills. Why? Because today, in America’s totally dysfunctional political drama, they are DOA. That’s right, the five are totally unacceptable to the vast majority of conservative billionaires and Forbes Global 2000 corporations. Their lobbyists would kill the five proposals before they ever reached Congress.

Why skeptical of a ‘Future’ defined by a Super-Rich Capitalist?

Why add five DOA solutions? Surely Gore’s smart enough to know those five “sustainable capitalism” proposals would go nowhere. So why add? Because such a book needed solutions, not just a definition of the problems. Get it? Even if the solutions are never considered in today’s political circus, they enhance “The Future’s” aura of scientific research and challenging scholarship.

Yes, we’re skeptical of motive, of adding less-than-serious solutions to dress up the work. So what’s going on? Here’s a skeptic’s observation: Al Gore, the former environmental activist who parlayed his Oscar, Grammy and Noble Peace Prize into a capitalist fortune, is protecting his newly acquired $300 million personal fortune by publishing this new 558-page business calling card about “The Future” to increase his firm’s credibility as successful capitalists, private equity investors and science gurus.

So forget the five solutions. Now Gore has “Six Drivers” that target six strategic macroeconomic trends for investment opportunities. That way, as the world continues down the road of “unsustainable capitalism,” Gore and his billionaire capitalist buddies will keep amassing and hoarding maximum capital before the “end of the world.”

But are we too harsh? Too skeptical? Too cynical? No. Media experts also sense Gore’s contradictions. Have been unkind: Reuter’s Sinead Cruise focused on Gore’s real target, “unsustainable capitalism,” which is here to stay. And in “Gore’s Grim Prophecy,” Rolling Stone editor Jeff Goodell says the title, “The Future,” suggests Gore wrote his book as if it “were written by God himself.” And that it will “surely raise questions about whether Gore is an arrogant technocrat or a mad visionary.”

EPA/Franck Robichon

Al Gore

In the New York Times Book Review, Michael Lind wrote: “Democracy, Hacked ... Corporate interests keep us from facing our problems.” And earlier in “Up Ahead: The World According to Gore,” another Times reviewer, Michiko Kakutani, dismissed Gore’s book: “Bites off way more than it can plausibly chew ... lacks cogency and focus” ... and merely retraces “ground covered in more persuasive detail” by Clinton, Brzezinski and Stiglitz ... often reads “like updates on Alvin Toffler’s 1970 classic, ‘Future Shock.’”

But perhaps the harshest review is in the American Interest, “Futurama: Al Gore mispredicts our future by misunderstanding our present,” writes Columbia University Economics Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati, an expert in globalization: “The problem Gore faces in the bulk of this book therefore is that his identification of problems, and his proposed solutions, are not compelling.”

Bhagwati says Gore’s “erudition is considerable but is necessarily limited since he casts his net wide, and he is both unfamiliar with important issues pertinent to his analysis and also shallow in his prescriptions for remedial policies.”

Moreover, “given Gore’s justified reputation on climate change, a disappointing feature of Gore’s book is in the chapter titled ‘The Edge.’ ... Where he fails is in the remedies.” Not compelling. Shallow. Fails.

Now take a close look at Gore’s “Six Drivers of Global Change.” Remember, Gore’s net worth is $300 million since selling his cable network to Dubai’s Al Jazerra. Are the “Six Drivers” really a new strategic map of “target-rich environments” guiding his investment company’s future profits?

Didn’t his earlier books help him to transition from environmental activist worth just $2 million into one of Silicon Valley’s Super Rich? And isn’t he looking for more megamillion investments? Here are six targeted areas of investment opportunities:

Economic globalization: Gore’s “Earth Inc” is a new world ruled by capitalists.

New balance of global power: The world is rapidly shifting away from an America-centered system to multiple “centers of power, from nation-states to private actors, from political systems to markets.” Yes, from democracies to capitalistic dictators.

Scientific revolutions: Genomic, biotech, neuroscience, life sciences transforming medicine, agriculture, molecular science. Control of evolution is now in human hands.

Radical disruption between humans and ecosystems: With today’s “revolutionary transformation of energy systems, agriculture, transportation and construction worldwide ... ‘The Future’ is a map of the world to come.”

Earlier as Gore was finalizing his vision of “The Future,” he wrote a major op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal with his Generation co-founder David Blood, former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Their goal: “To encourage businesses around the world to be more responsible, ethical and sustainable,” making it clear that “while governments and civil society will need to be part of the solution to these massive challenges, ultimately it will be companies and investors that will mobilize the capital needed to overcome them.”

Translation: Ultimately giant companies and capitalist investors will run the world and democracy will have a minor role. What a bizarre “Future!” Gore’s “sustainable capitalism” ideal is either heavy on more governmental regulations that kill free markets or it’s a cleverly disguised system of self-regulation run by capitalists.

Unfortunately, experience warns that this noblesse-oblige mask for self-regulation has never worked with Wall Street banks. Nor is it working today in Washington’s dysfunctional government-by-special-interest lobbyists.

Gore’s new world order: Broken democracies run by rich capitalists

The truth is, Gore’s message isn’t new: He is giving up on democracy. He’s convinced capitalism is America’s solution. And capitalism will save the world. But what if capitalism is actually our biggest problem? Cannot be fixed?

Let’s look closely at Gore’s five ways to fix “unsustainable capitalism.” Will these five really help America recover from our addiction to free-market greed? And won’t resistance by entrenched capitalists sabotage Gore’s five solutions? Guarantee the “sustainable capitalism” ideal is DOA, window dressing?

The reality is Gore’s five-part plan to create new government regulations has no chance of succeeding in any future envisioned by experts like Bhagwati. See for yourself: Here are Gore’s five action solutions for “immediate adoption by companies, investors and others to accelerate the current incremental pace of change to one that matches the urgency of the situation:”

Gore: “Identify and incorporate risk from stranded assets.” Translation: Stop shifting the costs of air and water pollution and other environmental damages to the public and start taxing long-term corporate polluters.

Gore: “Mandate integrated reporting.” Translation: Force corporations to add to short-term financial data new information on how non-financial ESG factors (environmental, social, governance”) will enhance or damage “sustainable, long-term value creation.” Also, legislate new rules to be administered by agencies such as the SEC with new penalties.

Gore: “End the default practice of quarterly earnings guidance.” Translation: End the SEC’s quarterly earnings requirements because they “incentivize executives to manage for the short-term. ... Ending this practice ... would encourage a longer-term view of the business” for investors too.

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